Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

Most businesses fund new initiatives including marketing and technology projects from profits. The more profits a company generates the greater their willingness to pay for services and ultimately the larger the market size for a startup. Market Cap in $B. The more money they make, the more they can pay for new technology.

Market Segmentation 100

Market Segmentation Marketing Technical Review Software Review 100

SaaStr

MARCH 30, 2024

One of the biggest mistakes I see after $1m in trying to enter new market segments, new verticals, where you have zero traction. Then, you’ll have enough folks and experience to put a small team on a new initiative / segment / market. It’s a ton of reps, higher absolute marketing spend, more CSMs, etc.

Scaling 264

Scaling Revenue Underperforming Technical Team Market Segmentation 264

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 18, 2019

Though the startup may have achieved product market fit, the company may not understand the fit. Many times, the PM builds the product as quickly as possible to establish product/market fit. In contrast, the PMM answers critical questions about the company, product and market to ensure the product sells. What is our pitch?

Product Marketing 236

Product Marketing Startup Marketing Interviewing 236

User Pilot

SEPTEMBER 4, 2023

Customer segments enable you to find/understand your target audience and boost engagement, making them an important marketing tool. And while each segmentation method has advantages, psychographic segmentation can truly turn your product into a growth engine. What is psychographic segmentation?

Product Marketing 102

Product Marketing Strategy Marketing Market Research 102

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

If you’re growing, generally, you’re focused on a market or market segment that’s also growing. economy remains strong, the stock market is at all-time highs, AI is fueling Cloud growth, and yet … many folks are cutting their tech budgets, and especially, those that sell to startups are struggling. Not shrinking.

Churn 192

Churn Market Segmentation AI Cloud 192

Neil Patel

DECEMBER 23, 2022

What is differentiated marketing, and why does it matter? Differentiated marketing could be the way to go if you want to niche down (focus on your ideal buyers) or target a new segment of customers. What Is Differentiated Marketing, And Why Is It Useful? Differentiated vs. Undifferentiated Marketing.

Marketing 72

Marketing Advertising Market Segmentation Branding 72

Baremetrics

MAY 18, 2021

You have to know your customers to market your product. But to market most effectively, you have to target subsets of those customers and hone in on their specific needs. That is the power behind customer segmentation. Baremetrics actually has a feature built directly into the product that will do customer segmentation for you.

Strategy 59

Strategy Marketing Market Segmentation B2C 59

FastSpring

APRIL 13, 2023

Across markets, companies were “taking big data sets and visualizing them in interesting ways to create user experiences.” When Justin and his initial team started looking for a way to capitalize on VR/AR technology, they focused their attention on the “made-to-order” industrial market. Experience is the keyword here. Justin explained.

Payment Methods 115

Payment Methods Marketing Payments SaaS Payments 115

User Pilot

JULY 30, 2023

Looking to leverage marketing automation segmentation to offer contextual and relevant in-app messages ? Marketing automation segmentation enables you to deliver the right message to the right people at precisely the right time. Different types of customer segmentation are: User attribute-based segmentation.

Scale 98

Scale Marketing Onboarding User Experience 98

Unbounce

JULY 7, 2021

This is also where we believe digital marketing finds itself today —on the cusp of something new that’s about to overhaul traditional processes, manual data-crunching, and tedious testing by partnering up with artificial intelligence and machine learning. The Problem with Digital Marketing Today. It’s difficult to start one.

Artificial Intelligence 145

Artificial Intelligence AI Search Marketing AI 145

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 24, 2017

After last week’s post, Is There a No Man’s Land in SaaS ACVs , a founder asked me to highlight some of the go to market strategies in different segments. Geotab addresses the same market as Fleetmatics. They both address the same market segment, but have approached it in radically different ways.

Sales Hiring 186

Sales Hiring Strategy Venture Capital Marketing 186

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 26, 2022

Vertical software companies pursue a particular market segment like car dealership management or hotel management software. A former venture capitalist, Mark Leonard started Constellation in 1995 with $15m of outside investment & a goal of buying vertical software companies with a moat & good unit economics.

Software Review 273

Software Review Investment Software Acquisition 273

Baremetrics

APRIL 27, 2021

Before taking advantage of customer segmentation, you need to understand your customer base and what it wants before building new products and creating effective marketing campaigns. Learn more about the customer segmentation tool from Baremetrics. Learn more about the customer segmentation tool from Baremetrics.

Strategy 59

Strategy Marketing Market Segmentation Outsourced Development 59

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2024

So they have pushed operating margins even higher, but do have contingency plans to do so if market conditions get tougher (i.e., The Big Efficiency Cuts Have Been in Sales & Marketing Procore got more efficient and its operating margins up mainly by cutting sales & marketing expense — down almost 10% this past year.

Scale 202

Scale Payment Services Payment Features Construction 202

SaaSOptics

AUGUST 11, 2022

How to Navigate the Market Downturn. Everyone is starting to feel the squeeze of the market—especially those in the tech space. Seasoned industry vets may know what their next move should be, but navigating a changing market (especially one in a downturn) is an obstacle for any SaaS founder. Raise, Sell, Merge, or Scale?

Scale 97

Scale Scaling Technical Review Venture Capital 97

SaaStr

MARCH 18, 2021

Q: How can a SaaS startup survive in a crowded market? Find a segment of the market to win in. Most SaaS markets are crowded today. There can be room for a vendor focused just on e-commerce, or healthcare, or contact centers, or other large markets. A bit more here: 5 Ways to Enter a Crowded Market.

Healthcare 266

Healthcare Market Segmentation Mobile Churn 266

OpenView Labs

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

The US election is behind us, many of our customers at Ibbaka have worked out their Covid-19 and post Covid-19 strategies, and we’re moving into a new market in 2021. Given the changes we’ve all experienced in 2020, now is the time to resegment your market. Has the segmentation itself changed?

Pricing 73

Pricing Marketing Market Segmentation Communication 73

BetterCloud

JANUARY 19, 2023

Our new CMO Erin Avery brings over 15 years of experience and a proven record of developing and executing successful go-to-market strategies to her role. Having spent over 80% of her career marketing and selling solutions that meet the evolving priorities of the CIO and IT organization, Erin is the perfect addition to BetterCloud.

Marketing 52

Marketing Innovation Government Market Segmentation 52

Neil Patel

APRIL 1, 2021

That’s exactly why you must leverage niche marketing. What Is Niche Marketing? Niche marketing refers to any marketing tactic aiming to attract and convert a specific market segment with unique preferences and demands. Simply put, a niche market is a small, defined segment of a larger market.

Marketing 96

Marketing Social Media Branding Strategy 96

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

Second, usually, bootstrapped SaaS companies start at the bottom of the market (SMBs and silos-in-the-enterprise). But the sales cycles are longer, and generally, you need more experienced sales and marketing talent to acquire and close these deals. So usually you have to start at “the bottom” of the market and slowly go upmarket.

Sales Hiring 361

Sales Hiring Venture Capital Scale SaaS 361

SaaStr

JULY 18, 2021

2 “Secrets to Aligning Marketing and Revenue Strategies with Marqeta’s CMO” A great session with Marqeta’s CEO, who previously helped run marketing at Mulesoft. A great look back at how Chime built its brand, where it struggled, the market segment it wanted to win, and how it scaled. #7.

Scale 268

Scale Finance Market Segmentation Enterprise 268

SaaStr

MAY 28, 2021

Product-market fit. But roughly, if you aren’t growing at least 10% a month in MRR on the way to $1m ARR, and at least 6% a month thereafter, you don’t quite have product-market fit yet. Passion and belief in your market, customers and journey. A market or at least, market segment, that if small now will be huge.

SaaS 314

SaaS Market Segmentation Product Marketing Marketing 314

SaaStr

MARCH 30, 2021

But really, it means you aren't doing any effective marketing. Are you focusing your marketing efforts in the areas you do win? Win rates should go down as you scale, and push into new market segments. Win rates in fact should go down as you do more marketing. A very high close rate sounds great.

Scale 280

Scale Market Segmentation Leadership Engineering 280

SaaStr

MAY 19, 2020

Focusing on Segments That Are Thriving. Not enough SaaS companies have segmented their sales teams and marketing efforts into Green, Yellow and Red market segments. Both for marketing and sales. Are you doing digital events just focused on your top customer segments? Marketing Spend is Returning.

Strategy 299

Strategy Travel Market Segmentation Onboarding 299

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

Even if you think you know the market, you will learn a ton. certain market segments, or verticals, or use cases, or workflows). A bit more here: If You’re Going to Do a SaaS Start-Up … You Have to Give it 24 Months | SaaStr. Do at least 20 potential customer interviews. If you don’t, you’ll build the wrong 1.0.

Startup 256

Startup SaaS Interviewing Market Segmentation 256

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2023

70% of customers are in the Enterprise and mid-market space, and 30% are SMBs. The LMS market segment is big, and Docebo thinks about it in two folds. They were among the first in their category to think of the external side of the market because the external U.S. market is double the size of the internal one.

Sales Hiring 193

Sales Hiring Scale SMB Outsourced Development 193

SaaStr

JANUARY 13, 2022

The things we are both interested in are very similar, our thoughts on risks and markets were well aligned. And as the number of SaaS companies continues to grow and explode, and as SaaS changes and penetrates more and more market segments … it seems like there are more and more exciting SaaS companies without a natural acquirer.

Market Segmentation 255

Market Segmentation Mobile Technology Cloud 255

OpenView Labs

JUNE 3, 2021

If you aren’t clear on what product marketing is, how it’s different from product management, and what the responsibilities of a product marketer are, you’re not alone. Specifically, I’m talking about product management and product marketing. pricing, channel, and marketing readiness, etc.).

Product Marketing 93

Product Marketing Sales Hiring Startup Scale 93

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

OCTOBER 8, 2013

If you think about it carefully, you may find other ways to identify your particular market segment. I talk with a lot of companies that are rightly very proud of what they've built, all the things it can do, and all the markets it can serve. Or at least take on a carefully selected handful of well-defined segments.

Marketing 100

Marketing SaaS Underperforming Technical Team Acquisition 100

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 19, 2012

The first step in developing a sales strategy is to build a robust market segmentation. I’ve used data from the US Census to develop a segmentation that reveals some surprising facts about the SMB market and may help inform your startup’s sales strategy. Charts 3 & 4: The 4 market segments by revenue.

Marketing 100

Marketing Sales SaaS Market Segmentation 100

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 19, 2012

The first step in developing a sales strategy is to build a robust market segmentation. I’ve used data from the US Census to develop a segmentation that reveals some surprising facts about the SMB market and may help inform your startup’s sales strategy. Charts 3 & 4: The 4 market segments by revenue.

Marketing 100

Marketing Sales SaaS Market Segmentation 100

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 5, 2017

At this point, the critical marketing imperative is to start a conversation with a receptive buyer, and do it thousands of times per year. I met a master software marketer last week, and he shared some of his wisdom. The marketer’s fundamental challenge: buyers don’t perceive a substantial difference amongst vendors.

Marketing 100

Marketing Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Sales 100

SaaStr

JANUARY 2, 2021

The #1 biggest mistake I see from $1m to $10m ARR is chasing new market segments, new categories, new areas where you have 0 or almost no traction. Align your marketing budgets. Hire a VP of Marketing that knows demand gen cold. You’ve gotten 50, 100, whatever # of businesses to pay you $1,000,000 a year. You did it.

Sales Hiring 294

Sales Hiring Headcount Pricing Market Segmentation 294

Baremetrics

MAY 26, 2021

Your marketing strategies are most effective when you use targeted messaging aimed at your specific customer base. Customer segmentation is a way to break up your current or prospective customers into groups. Learn more about your customers by using the Baremetrics customer segmentation feature. Other times it stands alone.

Social Media 105

Social Media Market Segmentation B2C Churn 105

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Vertical SaaS requires a different go-to-market than horizontal SaaS companies. They trade a more narrow customer base and consequent reduction in market size for a competitive advantage in that market segment. Today, Veeva’s market cap exceeds $3.3B.

Startup 104

Startup SaaS Underperforming Technical Team Marketing 104

SaaStr

MARCH 8, 2020

Except with Salesloft and Outreach both are winning in the same space , each with dominant market share. When in a large space, segments alone can be huge. 2 often has a better product, at least for some market segments. #2 It simplifies things and makes it easier to rally sales, product and marketing. #2

Innovation 248

Innovation Market Segmentation Pricing Branding 248

SaaStr

MARCH 25, 2021

Shopify is #1 in so many market segments, but for “bigger” SMBs BigCommerce (and perhaps less-custom enterprise deployments) is arguably #2 to Shopify. It’s much smaller than Shopify, at $170m ARR vs $3B+ ARR, but it’s still plenty big for us to learn a lot from this big but not #1 player in the market.

Outsourcing Services 210

Outsourcing Services Payments Merchant Services SaaS Payments 210